Science For Teachers

Front 1

Name three practical things early astronomy dealt with.

Back 1

1. Keeping Time
2. Marking the arrival of seasons
3. Predicting Ecplipses of the Sun and the Moon

Front 2

What did the Egyptians base their calendar on? Explain

Back 2

Hunters 30,000 years ago probably used certain celestial cycles to help them hunt and acquire food.

Front 3

Name the five planets that have been known since ancient times.

Back 3

Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn

Front 4

What does the word planet mean?

Back 4

Wanderer or Wandering Star

Front 5

What Astronomical prediction is Thales credited with?

Back 5

He was one of the first Greek thinkers. He predicted an eclipse that stopped the battle between warring Greek factions in 580 B.C.

Front 6

What does retrograde motion mean?

Back 6

The apparent backward motion of a planet with respect to the background stars.

Front 7

What three important astronomical ideas was Aristotle correct about?

Back 7

1. He thought the moon was spherical.
2. He argued that the sun was farther away than the moon.
3. He thought the Earth was spherical.

Front 8

What idea was Aristotle incorrect about?

Back 8

Universe was spherical and finite, with Earth at center.

Front 9

Ptolemy’s theory of the solar system? Explain.

Back 9

He placed the Earth in the center then the moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. He imagined the planets on small orbits, called epicycles. The center of each small orbit moved around Earth on a larger orbit called a deferent.

Front 10

Eratosthenes contribution:

Back 10

Eratosthenes determined the size of Earth using angular geometric relations to measure Earth size.

Front 11

Stonehenge

Back 11

Used to mark summer and winter solstices

Front 12

Mayan People

Back 12

Their cities and buildings are aligned to astronomical phenomena. Their calendar was set by the sun and moon. Also based on the rising and setting of Venus.

Front 13

Native Americans

Back 13

Medicine Wheels and Calendar Sticks

Front 14

What contribution did Nicolaus Copernicus make to astronomy that is considered by many astronomers to be the greatest single contribution? What mistake was he making?

Back 14

He is credited with proposing the helocentric or sun centered solar system. His theory still contained only circular orbits.

Front 15

How did Galileo help prove the heliocentric idea? (two observations)

Back 15

1. He found four satelites revolving around Jupiter - thus supplying proof that at least some bodies do not revolve around the Earth.
2. He also discovered that Venus went through an entire series of phases - another piece of evidence that the Earth was not in the center.

Front 16

Explain Kepler’s first & second laws.

Back 16

1st law - the planets orbit the Sun in ellipses, with the Sun at one focus.
2nd law - the line joining the Sun and a planet sweeps through equal areas in equal times.

Front 17

At what point in its orbit does a planet move fastest?

Back 17

when it is nearest to the sun

Front 18

Order of planets

Back 18

The Sun • Mercury • Venus • Earth • Mars • Ceres • Jupiter • Saturn • Uranus • Neptune • Pluto • Haumea • Makemake • Eris

Front 19

Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation (what happens when the distance or masses are changes?)

Back 19

The gravitational force between two bodies is equal to the product of multiplying their mass and divided by the distance between their centers squared.
If the bodies' mass doubles - the force between them doubles.
If the distance between their cetners doubles, the force is 4 times weaker.
Tripling the distance makes the force 9 times weaker.

Front 20

Newton's First Law of Motion

Back 20

A body at rest will remain at rest, and a body in motion will continue in motion with a constant speed in a straight line as long as no external force acts on it.

Front 21

Newton's Second Law of Motion

Back 21

A larger mass requires a lerger force to give it the same accelteration obtained for a smaller mass and a smaller force.

Front 22

Newton's Third Law of Motion

Back 22

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This makes rockets work.

Front 23

Archaeoastronomy

Back 23

the study of how past people have understood the phenomena in the sky, how they used phenomena in the sky and what role the sky played in their cultures.

Front 24

parallax

Back 24

a small angular shift in a star's apparent position due to the Earth's motion around the sun.

Front 25

red

Back 25

stars of spectral type M (the stars with the coolest temperature) are classified as red stars.

Front 26

blue

Back 26

hottest temp stars

Front 27

geocentric

Back 27

theory that Earth is the center of the universe

Front 28

helical rising

Back 28

of a star occurs on the first day each year when the star can be seen just before dawn.

Front 29

helical setting

Back 29

occurs on the last day of the year when the star can be seen at dusk.

Front 30

ecliptic

Back 30

the apparent path of the sun across the sky.

Front 31

heliocentric

Back 31

sun centered solar system

Front 32

constellations

Back 32

Figures in the sky that were recorded by Sumerians as far back as 2000 BC

Front 33

astronomical unit

Back 33

The average distance from the earth to the sun.

Front 34

period

Back 34

The length of time a planet takes to orbit the sun.

Front 35

foci

Back 35

singular focus - an ellipse has two points as it's foci instead of one center point

Front 36

circle

Back 36

a curve with every point equal distance from the center

Front 37

ellipse

Back 37

a curve with two points called its foci instead of one center point

Front 38

Solar Eclipse

Back 38

occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and the Earth, and the Moon fully or partially covers the Sun as viewed from some location on Earth. This can only happen during a new moon, when the Sun and Moon are in conjunction as seen from Earth. At least two, and up to five, solar eclipses occur each year; no more than two can be total eclipses.

Front 39

Lunar Eclipse

Back 39

occurs when the moon passes behind the earth such that the earth blocks the sun’s rays from striking the moon. This can occur only when the Sun, Earth and Moon are aligned exactly, or very closely so, with the Earth in the middle. Hence, there is always a full moon the night of a lunar eclipse.

Front 40

Sidereal Period/Lunar Month

Back 40

The Moon makes a complete orbit around the Earth with respect to the fixed stars about once every 27.3 days(its sidereal period). However, since the Earth is moving in its orbit about the Sun at the same time, it takes slightly longer for the Moon to show its same phase to Earth, which is about 29.5 days